At the beginning of 1943, Benjamin and Tatiana Horowitz fled from the Warsaw ghetto with their three-year-old son Abraham. The parents hid separately in the city. They entrusted their son to helpers, who found shelter for him in a series of hiding places.
In the summer of 1943, Abraham Horowitz was taken to Stanisław and Regina Świda. Since the boy was circumcised, the Świdas feared he might be discovered during a spot check. Men and boys suspected of being Jewish were often forced to undress. Stanisław Świda therefore had the idea of passing the boy off as a Muslim Tartar. This ethnic group also circumcised boys but was not persecuted. The chairman of the Tatar Committee confirmed the child’s Tartar Muslim origin, although he suspected Abraham Horowitz might be Jewish.
The helper Stanisław Świda was killed during the 1944 Warsaw uprising; his wife took care of Abraham Horowitz until the end of the war. Abraham’s mother also survived. Her son did not recognize her when she came to collect him in May 1945.